What's the difference between a submachine gun and an assault rifle?

Answer 1

The term machine gun, refers to a fully automatic weapon. This means as long as you keep the trigger depressed, it will continue to expend rounds until the weapon is empty. It has nothing to do with cartridge size or the way the weapon stores ammo (magazine, belt-fed, drums, etc). A Sub-machine gun, is a machine gun that fires pistol ammunition. An MP5 is a sub-machine gun. An assault rifle is a type of machine gun that fires rifle calibers, and are generally designed for military use. The term assault rifle was not created by the media, it is a translation of the German word Sturmgewehr. Sturmgewehr was coined by Adolf Hitler to describe the Maschinenpistole 44, which was used as a verb being synonymous with the English word: assault. Examples would be the M16 and Ak47. Semi-auto (a weapon that fires only one round per trigger press) rifles are not assault rifles. An AR-15 is not an assault rifle, as it can only fire one round per trigger press. Large caliber rifles with belt fed ammunition, or large drums are not assault riffles either. An M60 is not an assault rifle. Weapons with small fixed ammo capacity are also not assault rifles. An M1 Garand is not an assault rifle, for example.

Answer 2

The term Sub-Machine Gun and Assault Rifle were pretty much inventions of the media. Originally the term was Machine Pistol due to the use of pistol caliber ammunition and Select Fire Rifle meaning a rifle that could be fired either one shot at a time or fully automatic. I don't know when the term sub-machine gun came to be but the first time I heard the term Assault Rifle was in the 1980's when congress strove to outlaw semi-automatic rifles by calling them Assault Rifles.

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Answer 3

Sub Machine guns are shorter, more compact and have a very high rate of fire, but due to it's size are less accurate. It normally uses 9mm rounds.

Assault rifles are longer with a high rate of fire but usually used single or burst fire. These days they are very accurate and most have a scope. (minus the M16).

So the subs are used in close quarters, tank crews, airborne etc. Assault make very versatile weapons, (can be fitted with M203 for example) so are the standard weapon.

First guy, just to point out that most pistols use 9mm rounds, Subs and Assault rifles use 5.56 and 7.62mm (as standard). So as you can see they are smaller rounds.

And second guy, SAW isn't an assault rifle.

Answer 4

technically a submachine gun uses pistol amunition and an assault rifle uses larger rifle rounds

Answer 5

sub uses pistol ammunition and generally compact in size used mainly for cqb. while the riffle uses larger rounds, bulkier, and has a longer effective range.

Answer 6

Capasity is the only real difference.
The modern assult rifle will have a 20-30 round clip.
The modern SAW will have a 200 round drum.
http://www.fas.org/man/dod-101/sys/land/m249-3.jpg